Gold tabs on printer toners

They yield about the same amount as a lb of sim cards, very similar. Anywhere from .5g - 1g per lb, with .5g being far more likely.

Scott

Originally Posted by Bear

I pull em too, even out of the ink cartridge carrier tray, it's just hard to leave that gold stuff behind, but wow, anybody got any idea how many of those it will take to make a pound? Has anybody ever lived long enough to acquire a pound ?

It takes about 1600 sim cards to make a lb, on the printer cartridges it's a little more difficult to figure because of their different sizes and different amounts of gold. I compare them to sim cards because so far as the material I have run, it's been very close, and I process them the same way. But that's not to say your lb couldn't produce more or less. It's a fairly good estimate considering the percentage of the material that has any gold plating on it.

It's probably better to figure per lb rather than how many make a lb, but if I had to guess, it would probably be more like 2000 - 3000 per lb.

Here is a great youtube video on exactly the type of material I am talking about:



Scott

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

I break'm off anything I find them on, if it doesn't devalue whatever the item is in question. For example while breaking down CD/DVD roms last night, on the motors some have those lil gold corners..quick clip an in my "OMG its gold!" bucket it goes for a later date.


Sirscrapalot - If you pinch a penny hard enough does it scream?

I like that the "OMG it's gold" bucket. Once again my monitor screen needs a good wiping down thanks to you Sir.. =P

Even though I don't really scrap much material anymore, I do still come across things like the ink cartridges, and always pull the gold. It accumulates and before you know it you have a valuable little pile of precious metals.

Scott

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

I collect these 'gold stamps' as well.

On some of them, the tracks are also gold plated under the plastic mylar. I just dunno which ones...

I put the gold coloured metal printer 'work face' into HCL acid & it didn't eat up much of the gold colour so I think there may be also gold on that too.

At the moment I'm saving up the ink cannisters so I can take them to a ink refiller to see what he has to say about them. If theres no $ in it, I will rip off all the mylars & heat to charcol the mylars & see what remains after a long HCL acid wash..

A long time ago I'd done a HCL acid wash on one mylar & found it to be mostly gold.

If there is copper in your HCl wash, it will not dissolve in just HCl, not unless you provide a lot of heat, or there is excess oxygen present. But if there is excess oxygen, this could also dissolve Gold as well, I know reading chemistry books they will state that Gold cannot be dissolved by HCl alone, that is true if there is no oxygen present, but if there is it can, and will dissolve gold as well. Without getting into too much chemistry, the oxygen acts as the oxidant where in acid solutions that are made to dissolve gold use another type of acid as the oxidant.

So while your HCl wash will get rid of base metals such as tin, etc. If it is dissolving copper also, then it could be dissolving gold, and if there is any metal left over, it could be both.

I don't usually post this type of information on this site, but I felt because it was already posted, that to clarify might help people who do HCl washes. I was not aware anyone did this. But as a disclaimer I would say that if you do not understand acids, or what they are capable of, or what mixing them could do you really should play with them. I am assuming that eesakiwi knows and understands what he is doing so I am not writing this for him, but for others that might come after and read this.

On a side note, I usually process this type of material by shredding to between 5-8 cm, and then process from that point forward. If you are testing for Gold, and the gold is between the mylar, you can cut the mylar into small pieces and then test with an acid kit for precious metals.

Scott

Originally Posted by Jeremiah

I've thought about this before but let me ask you guys a question.

If the gold platting is removed and the ink cartridge is still recycled through a retail store, can the cartridge ever be used again? Isn't this why these outlets are buying them? If this trend continues why would they continue to buy them? Is it really worth destroying 3000 toner cartridges to receive $30 for a pound of gold plated mylar?

Believe me, i'm not pointing fingers or claiming a moral high-ground, as I don't think in the grand scheme of things it's that big of a deal, but this was just my rational for not doing it.

I think for those removing them they figure more $$$ can be acquired by selling the mylar on Feebay. Some are taking the mylar and processing it as a savings as you are more apt to save gold than if you cashed in the cartridges for dollars. More than likely the dollars are going to be spent faster than if you have physical gold on hand. Gold for the most part should increase in value over time unlike the greenback which is not worth the paper its printed on.
As for the moral stance on turning them in without the mylar maybe ask if they will accept them without it before turning them in. You could also pm a buyer here if they will take them minus the mylar but I would venture a guess they wouldn't.

Originally Posted by Jeremiah

I've thought about this before but let me ask you guys a question.

If the gold platting is removed and the ink cartridge is still recycled through a retail store, can the cartridge ever be used again? Isn't this why these outlets are buying them? If this trend continues why would they continue to buy them? Is it really worth destroying 3000 toner cartridges to receive $30 for a pound of gold plated mylar?

Believe me, i'm not pointing fingers or claiming a moral high-ground, as I don't think in the grand scheme of things it's that big of a deal, but this was just my rational for not doing it.

During the process where the ink cartridges are re-filled, the ribbon we are all talking about is replaced. It's always replaced. Because of the nature of that particular part of the in cartridge it cannot be reused. Generally it goes into the recycled waste stream, most of the time companies that create this type of material waste pay to have it removed. It's considered hazardous waste because it falls under the category electronic waste.

Very few companies recover the values in waste material of this nature, and if they do, they do so under their asset recovery department, which is not accounted in their production costs, but instead against their assets, which means for every asset they are able to recover money from, they also pay taxes on.

In any case, it's not going to change the price of in cartridges, it's far less expensive to recycle them than it is to manufacture new ones.

So far as I am concerned, there is no moral issue to retaining these ribbons, and when you look at the action cost of each ribbon you can think of it like this. If it takes 2000 to make a lb, and you get the MAX amount possible off each lb, which would be 1 gram, at today's current spot price, 41.52 it would figure like this. 41.52 divided by 2000 = .02076 each, that is barely over 2 pennies. But for arguments sake lets say it's 3 pennies worth. The amount of money saved by recycling the actual plastic part that contains the ink, far outweighs the 3 pennies that the ribbon with the gold on it might be worth. It's not going to change the price in the ink cartridge at all.

Also, most of the recycled cartridges end up being sold to major corporations. When is the last time you have seen recycled cartridges for sale anywhere? This is information that has to be disclosed on the packaging at the time of purchase, who has ever seen any of these cartridges? I have no problem taking money out of the hands of major corporations that are only morally obligated to their stock holders, and not human beings. Specially when they propagate so much evil in the world. If I can stick it to them by taking 3 cents each time I retain that ribbon, I'm going to do it.

Scott

Originally Posted by happyscraper

The company that I sell my ink cartridges to won't buy them if the mylar with the gold is damaged. They say that they are no long usable.

They are outright lying to you, and you should sell them somewhere else. Either they, or someone else wants the mylar associated with them because of the gold. But the reality is that it's replaced each time the cartridges are recycled, if not there is no guarantee the cartridge will work. Those gold dots are the connections between the cartridge to the printer and the printer to the program that runs on your computer. The printer needs to read from the cartridge.

There might be independent people who are using kits to refill ink cartridges, and then reselling them. These cartridges have a high failure rate, and these people would require the mylars to be present. You shouldn't sell to these people because they not only are propagating bad business, but almost always pay less for the cartridges than they are actually worth. Sell to a reputable company, keep the mylars, and everyone is happy.

Scott